He has a name and he's more than a number.
But in the grand scheme, what Connor Eaton has been for West Frankfort against Harrisburg the last few years is a headache.
The 6-foot, 190-pound senior quarterback scored four touchdowns against the Bulldogs last season. Eaton rushed for over 100 and threw for 50 in a 42-7 victory.
"Stop No. 10," Harrisburg head coach Gabe Angelly said when asked to break down Friday night's Southern Illinois River-To-River Ohio opener at Taylor Field.
"If we want to have a chance to beat West Frankfort, he has to be the focus. We've seen him for a few years now and he throws it better, and still runs it good, but he's priority No. 1."
West Frankfort is in a very similar position to last year when the Redbirds hosted Harrisburg, sitting at 3-0, the 'Birds are one of eight Southern Illinois teams to still be unbeaten heading into conference play. Benton, who is at Herrin, is also 3-0 entering Ohio play.
On the Mississippi side, Nashville and Du Quoin, join the South Seven's Marion and Carbondale. Fairfield and Eldorado (in the Black Diamond Conference) round out the undefeated teams.
Harrisburg was idle last week and Angelly said his team used the time to focus on defense, where the 'Dogs have given up 89 points (third worst in conference play).
"We just worked on getting better at blocking and tackling. We really focused on that hard and didn't do as many X's and O's stuff and more fundamental with a focus on getting better individually."
Harrisburg leads the series 17-6 since 1996, but West Frankfort has won the last three meetings.
Eldorado at Sesser-Valier-Waltonville
As mentioned, Eldorado and Fairfield are only two unbeaten BDC teams and while the two are not scheduled to hook horns until Week 9 at Boz Adams Field, the Eagles will navigate the rest of the conference slate by traveling to Sesser-Valier-Waltonville County Friday.
The Red Devils have owned Eldorado the past two seasons, winning 28-16 last year and 22-14 two years ago. Sesser-Valier is is 14-9 against the Eagles since 1996.
Eldorado head coach Joe Clark doesn't shy away from acknowledging the recent success the Red Devils has had on his club.
In Clark's three years at Eldorado only two teams have a pair of wins over the Eagles: Sesser-Valier-Waltonville and Fairfield.
"They have just outcoached us and outplayed us," Clark said about S-V-W. "We're trying to grow in those areas and we know where we are deficient at. We know this is a big game, not just in general, but in relation to the conference standings, so it'll be interesting to see how we come out."
The one new addition to S-V-W is longtime southern Illinois skipper Mike Rude, who Red Devils' head coach John Shadowens brought on as a defensive coordinator.
But in three games, the Red Devils have given up 63, compared to 29 for Eldorado and in three games, Eldorado has the conference best numbers on offense, scoring a total of 123.
"(Sesser) has competitive kids," Clark said. "They compete hard and they run a good system on offense and defense. You can see some subtle changes with Rude running the defense, but at the end of the day, they are the same kids and they play hard."
Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
